Busy Vic championship takes over Winton

Monday 17 June, 2019
Photos: Revved Photography

The CAMS Victorian State Circuit Racing Championships has held its third round for 2019, with Winton Motor Raceway hosting the state championship.

More than 100 cars across seven categories were part of the two-day event, which saw a number of entertaining battles take place all weekend.

Headlining the bill were the popular Hyundai Excels with 34 cars entered, but it was Ben Grice who ended the day on top after winning two of the three races.

Finishing the weekend behind Grice was Cam Wilson courtesy of a trio of runner-up placings, and third outright going the way of Cooper Webster who regularly visited the top five placings.
 

The next biggest field of the weekend came in the form of the Improved Production Cars with 32 cars competing and it was BMW pilot Nathan Robinson who left the weekend with top honours after claiming two runner-ups and a win.

Another BMW driver in Andrew Butcher came in second place ahead of Mark Defanis and his Holden Commodore VF, while it was heartbreak for Damien Milano who had taken out the first two races, only to retire in the third and end his weekend.

Heath Collinson continued his stellar Formula Vee title defence, sharing top spot with Jake Rowe and only two points behind the duo was Nicholas Jones.

Collinson trailed both Rowe and Jones heading into the final race, however a dramatic one second victory over Rowe gave the 2018 champion the round victory.

Only two categories saw clean sweeps throughout the weekend with Porsche 997 GT3 Cup pilot Joseph Ensabella grabbing a convincing set of victories in Sports Cars, along with Brendan Jones and Benjamin D'Alia in Formula Ford.
 
Ensabella never looked out in doubt across the weekend as three runner-ups to Nick Karnaros saw Porsche 991 driver claim second place over another Porsche pilot in Jamie Lovett.
 
In Formula Ford, D’Alia led the outright category ahead of rivals Ben Bargwanna and Matt Holmes, while Peter Fitzgerald and Douglas Williams rounded out the 1200 class podium.
 

A second place to Tony Westaway in the Porsche 944’s first race saw his opportunity for a clean sweep all but over, however his two wins sealed the round over race one winner Lyndon Watson.

As the only other driver to finish each race on the podium, Watson was a well deserved recipient of a runner up finish as Ken Rowland and John Kennedy shared the final step of the podium.
 
Like Westaway, a first-race second place prevented Anthony Beare from a Saloon Cars domination, as he claimed the round win thanks to a victory in race one and two over Travis Lindorff.
 

Lindorff may have finished the day in second place behind Beare, but victory in the first race comfortably secured second ahead of Adam Lowndes.

In the final category of the weekend, Dean Camm steered his Chev Corvette C5 to a Sports Sedans round victory as he claimed the final race win to cap off a thrilling weekend for the category.

On equal points with race two winner Ian Cowley and race one winner Francois Habib ahead of the final race, Camm came out of the blocks with pure purpose, taking the lead into the first corner and eventually holding the lead from start to finish.
 
With Cowley five seconds behind the winner, the Commodore pilot sealed outright second, while a fourth place to Habib and his commodore saw him place third outright.
 
The next round of the CAMS Victorian State Circuit Racing Championships takes place at Sandown Raceway for the second time this year on 19-21 July.
 
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